Newest Newbie: What's my very first step?

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  • March 3, 2012 at 12:16 am
    shiregirl
    Participant

    Hi everyone.

    I have some friends who use the CM approach and I found this site via google. It is intriguing to me, and I think it might be a fit for my family. I have a 4 year old daughter who will start K in the fall, and an 8-month old son. So I have some time to research and prepare. 🙂 Anyhow, I would like to know which books I should read to learn about CM and the whole philosophy. Which of her books, and which books written by others. And what order I should read them in. I have read nothing yet. I only know about CM from the little my friends have told me and what I have seen on your site.

    Thanks for your input!!!!!

    March 3, 2012 at 12:43 am
    Carolyn
    Participant

    Welcome shiregirl!  I have 2 boys 5 and 2 yo so I am fairly new myself.  Below is a list of books I read.  I started this year reading Charlotte’s writings and I started with volume 1.  Here is a link to them free online and there is also a summary of each volume.  

    • Sonya Shafer’s free ebooks (they are on the right hand side of SCM’s home page)

    • Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison

    • More Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison

    • Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

    HTH!

    Carolyn

     

    March 3, 2012 at 1:17 am
    momto2blessings
    Participant

    I agree with going straight to the source!  I wish I would have read CM volumes sooner.  I think “For the Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaeffer McAulay (daughter of Francis Shaeffer) is a great beginner CM book. It’s very inspiring.  My second favorite is probably “When Children Love to Learn.”  HTH some:)  Gina

    March 3, 2012 at 7:51 am
    MamaSnow
    Participant

    I also highly, highly reccomend the Early Years book that SCM publishes – not free, but worth every penny. It is an annoted, topically organized collection of all of CM’s thoughts on educating young children – perhaps a little less intimidating than diving right into CM’s actual writings if you are brand new to CM (although I reccommend eventually going to the source as well. Volume 1 probably the best place to start since your children are young =). Reading the Early Years book was a breath of fresh air to me – my oldest dd was 4.5 when it came out and it gave me the confidence to relax and not push her so hard (we were already trying to push reading and writing at that time and meeting with resistance).

    I also have a list of some of my other favorite CM resources on my blog: http://snowfallacademy.blogspot.com/p/charlotte-mason-resources.html

    Welcome!

    Jen

    March 3, 2012 at 8:15 pm
    RobinP
    Participant

    Also don’t neglect Laying Down the Rails that Sonya has compiled.  What I love about Sonya’s books is that she takes Charlotte’s actual writings and organizes them in an accessible manner.  So everything Charlotte wrote about the habit of attention is in one place, for example.  I appreciate what other authors have written about a CM education, but nothing is like getting it straight from Charlotte herself.  Though her actual volumes are priceless, Sonya’s books are a great starting place.  Her video seminars are wonderful, too.

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